Though he appeared to be in a furious rage, Wilhelm was actually surveying the situation with cold detachment.
All the magic beasts had been deployed.
By now, the surface had to be overflowing with the corpses of ordinary citizens.
Someone had coincidentally managed to tamper with the Guardian Barrier, so things might fall short of his ideal outcome. Still, the moment the initial evacuation had stalled, massive casualties became inevitable.
Above all, the Magias Central Tower would collapse shortly.
Once he proudly raised a victory cry atop the rubble of what had once been the symbol of Magias, Wilhelm's lecture would reach its grand conclusion.
In other words, he had already more than achieved his objective.
While he could not call it an absolute triumph, a single individual had thrown the entire academy into disarray. Magias's loss of public trust was an absolute certainty.
Once he disposed of the dark-brown-haired boy before him, he would have no further business here. His response to this brat did not need to be a lecture; mere extermination would suffice.
Wilhelm aimed his baton at the boy and fired a magic bullet, naturally aiming straight for the face.
Yet, proving he was an Imperial Archmage Faculty student after all, the wavy-haired boy evaded the bullet's trajectory simply by tilting his head, stepping forward in the same breath.
A second shot, then a third, fired in rapid succession.
This time, Wilhelm aimed for the torso.
The boy accelerated even further, shifting his body just enough to slip past the projectile's path.
That movement was precisely what Wilhelm had anticipated.
As long as the magic bullets were aimed at his center of mass, the boy had no choice but to reposition. Whether it took one step or two, he needed to cover enough ground on foot to make the dodge.
He could have chosen to defend head-on, of course, but Wilhelm sensed the same scent on this boy as he had on Mercedes.
A martial artist's movements were pointlessly precise. With Wilhelm's eyes, seeing through his evasive path was child's play.
And lying in wait right where the boy would dodge was a magic barrier designed for restraint. Almost the exact moment the boy's foot touched the ground, the spherical cage finished forming.
It would take mere moments for the barrier to completely envelop him.
He would give him no time to escape as Mercedes had.
He would compress it at maximum output and crush him until he could no longer maintain human form.
"Baron—"
The very instant he began to weave the magic word, the boy appeared right before Wilhelm's eyes.
"—?!"
Fast.
The boy swung his greatsword back with ferocious momentum.
However, it was merely brute force. He could handle this easily.
The moment he blocked the strike, he would finish him off with a point-blank Baron.
For this greenhorn who could not even gauge the difference in their abilities, an absurd death before he even had time to feel regret was only fitting—.
◇
"A-Are you sure this was really okay...?"
In response to Niko's vague, fretful question, Elphin answered while maintaining her distance from the massive magic beast.
"What are you talking about?"
"S-Sending a first-year down there all alone as reinforcement. I-I don't know who this, um, Brendan guy is, but..."
"Stop overthinking useless shit and focus on the enemy in front of you. It'll be way worse if this massive bastard gets off academy grounds."
"B-But what if, um, the ringleader t-takes him hostage or something...?"
She had a point.
In fact, that was likely what was happening underground right now.
"Brendan is the faculty representative. Just trust the guy for now."
"E-Even if he's the representative, h-he's still just a first-year, isn't he...?"
At that, it finally clicked for Elphin.
A shut-in like Niko Bright had no way of knowing the results of this year's entrance exams.
Upperclassmen from the Imperial Archmage Faculty had participated as proctors, so Elphin had simply assumed the news would have naturally reached Niko's ears as well.
"Brendan Walker's magic coefficient. Do you know what it is?"
"Huh?"
Given the abrupt question, Niko replied with a puzzled look.
It was an uncharacteristic question for Elphin to ask in the middle of combat, but since she had asked, Niko had to answer.
A first-year in the Imperial Archmage Faculty, and their representative.
Keeping her focus locked on the enemy, Niko ran through her memories of her peers from the previous year.
"...1,000... 1,200? No, but such a number in the first semester of the first year... E-Even I was only at 1,500 back then..."
Elphin kept looking straight ahead and gave a faint smirk.
"It's 6,500."
◇
Mercedes and Filie witnessed it.
The exact moment the black flash of Brendan's sword tore the underground corridor apart.
"—Gh."
An unvoiced groan leaked from Wilhelm's throat.
The multi-layered magic barrier.
The crystallization of the Braham family's knowledge and technique.
Beautifully and meticulously constructed, it repelled every manner of harmful phenomenon.
Wilhelm's ancestor had used it against a large-scale surprise attack by an enemy nation, earning their noble title by successfully protecting the former king's younger brother.
An absolute defense so formidable that even the word "ironclad" fell hopelessly short.
There was no way to breach it alone.
At the very least, Wilhelm had believed that without a shadow of a doubt.
"Gh—aagh—"
With a sickening crunch, the multiple layers of magic barriers caved in, crushing Wilhelm along with them.
Brendan's black blade bit deep into the defensive layers, sinking further and further.
The clash of spear and shield was not even a contest.
Just as soft mud could not resist a driven stake, Brendan's sword unilaterally shattered Wilhelm.
It snapped.
Dragged by the blade forced into his flank, Wilhelm's body bent into a severe V-shape.
"Gah—gyaaah—"
His scream was cut short by agony.
Ribs shattered, and a searing heat licked at his internal organs.
By the time his thoughts were scorched by the pain, his body was twisted at an unnatural angle.
"—Buh."
Before he could vomit blood, the sword completed its swing.
Wilhelm's body broke through the ceiling of the underground corridor, piercing straight through the ground separating the surface from below. Even after breaking out onto the surface, the momentum did not slow in the slightest.
Heaven and earth flipped, violently scrambling the canvas of his vision. Not knowing which way was up or down, his back slammed into something next. The air in his lungs mixed with blood, blooming into a red flower from his mouth.
Lying on his back and staring up at the blue sky, he realized he had been blown all the way to the surface.
In the center of his undulating vision, a solitary black dot appeared.
Growing gradually larger, it was no bird.
It was the wavy-haired boy, about to plunge his sword down into Wilhelm.
"Eeeek?!"
Wilhelm frantically rolled away, and a split second later, the earth erupted.
A fissure split open at the point of impact, and Wilhelm was blown away like a leaf in a gale.
Standing in the center of the crater was the boy.
Greatsword in one hand, he observed Wilhelm with emotionless eyes.
The multi-layered barrier protecting his body had been shattered in a single blow.
That had not been some peculiar phenomenon produced by that white magic sword from earlier.
It was the result of pure, unadulterated destructive power.
Simply put, he had just swung his sword.
With nothing more than that, Wilhelm had already been pushed past his limit.
"...Tough bastard."
As if testing the opponent before him, Brendan took a step forward.
This boy possessed enough firepower to surpass the Magias faculty if things went wrong.
Why was an anomaly like this mixed in among the first-years?
Regardless, if this continued, he would be killed for sure.
Faced with that reality, Wilhelm chose to retreat without hesitation.
His objective had already been achieved.
There was no reason to indulge this incomprehensible anomaly any further.
Yes, as for his highest priority target, the Central Tower—.
"—...What?"
The Central Tower was leaning just a fraction.
Just a tiny fraction.
Perhaps someone who looked at it every day might notice the slight tilt.
The anomaly was only to that extent.
"What?!"
He had performed the structural calculations countless times.
The trap Wilhelm had secretly laid should have cleanly gouged out the central pillar.
The Magias headmaster halting the collapse had been unexpected, but that was only supposed to buy a brief moment of extra time.
So why hadn't it collapsed?
He had thought it strange.
The staff had remained utterly devoted to dealing with the magic beasts the whole time.
Aside from the headmaster, there had been no sign of anyone heading to deal with the Central Tower.
"Why...?"
It was then that he noticed another inconvenient truth.
He had been too focused on combat to notice until just now, but the massive pile of corpses that should have been there was nowhere to be found.
This location was the closest to the rookie tournament arena.
It made no sense unless a corresponding number of bodies were strewn about.
Were they simply not visible from this spot?
Wilhelm directed his consciousness through the Guardian Barrier to check the life signs across the academy grounds.
The life signs of the general public had already vanished from the combat zone.
"..."
A heavy thud echoed.
He turned toward the distant vibration.
His trump card, the massive magic beast, was soaring through the air as it shattered into pieces.
He looked up.
In the sky, the light of the Guardian Barrier flickered as it was being reclaimed.
"..."
In other words, this was what had happened.
The flawless plan he had poured his entire fortune into over a long period of time—thus far, it had failed to achieve a single desired outcome.
Faced with this nightmare, his reasoning shattered with an audible snap.
"Was it... you...?"
Opening and closing his mouth like a fish, Wilhelm stepped forward with a ghostly gait.
Even in the depths of utter confusion, he scrambled to gather the scattered pieces of information.
Connecting the dots into a line, he posited a certain fact.
"You... you fixed the Central Tower...!"
"Yeah. I fixed the tower."
"You... my...!"
"All that's left is beating you, and it's over."
"YOUUUUUUUU!!"
Spurting tears of blood from both eyes, Wilhelm leaped forward with beast-like movements.
He could still move.
Brendan leveled his greatsword at waist height.
"YOUUUUUUU!!"
Screaming at the top of his lungs, Wilhelm poured the last of his strength into deploying a barrier.
His figure was the very definition of a human cannonball.
Turning ironclad armor directly into an offensive charge would certainly yield a measure of effectiveness.
Assuming the defense held, that is.
"—Phew..."
Exhaling deeply, Brendan channeled magic power into the black hilt.
To Brendan, this particular blade was a failure.
Because the materials had been overly compressed during forging, the shape of the edge was unstable, rendering it a blunt lump incapable of cutting anything.
A mere block of iron whose only redeeming qualities were its weight and durability, failing to even maintain the semblance of a sword.
And that was precisely why it was perfect for beating the trash before him.
"Red Baron!!"
Thin, translucent films enveloped Brendan in double, then triple layers.
Paying no mind to the total of five overlapping barriers, Brendan locked his aim onto the incoming Wilhelm.
"Gantera."
Calling out its name, he activated the magic sword.
The laws of physics shrieked, and space warped grotesquely around the blade. From that alone, cracks spread through the barriers enclosing Brendan, shattering them like thin ice.
Yet Wilhelm did not stop.
Brendan swept his greatsword in a horizontal cleave.
The magic barrier deployed with all of Wilhelm's might shattered to pieces without offering even the resistance of an eggshell.
The atmosphere was torn asunder, and the ground peeled away.
A single swing of the magic sword stripped away every shred of Wilhelm's protection, violently gouging up the surrounding earth.
"—...Ah."
At last, Wilhelm's feet came to a halt.
"—...Ah."
Wilhelm fell to both knees.
Just a simple practice swing.
With that alone, his prized barrier and everything in the vicinity had been blown away.
Had the boy wanted to, he could have easily turned Wilhelm into mincemeat. If, say, the tip of the blade had grazed him even slightly.
"Still want to go?"
Brendan asked.
Resting against the side of Wilhelm's neck was the black greatsword.
Wilhelm's mouth trembled.
He searched for words.
For the logic of his victory.
For anything to deny his defeat.
For one final lecture to prove that he was still in the right.
Yet, nothing came out.
".........I... admit defeat."
To that faint, fading answer, only the sound of the wind softly responded.